Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hands-on

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It's good, but is it awesomely super-sensationalistic .to the max, dude?

By Douglass C. Perry

We hate to say it, but after Konami cranked out three nearly identical button-mashing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (TMNT) titles on the old-gen systems, game fans, turtle fans, and pretty much everyone else in their '20s who remembered Vanilla Ice's great achievement in acting were left longing for something more. We've all been waiting for a publishing/development team to treat TMNT material with intelligence, humor and design savvy. And one might say we're still waiting.

Enter the internationally diverse publishing powerhouse, Ubisoft. Grabbing the game license based on the upcoming 2007 CGI movie, Ubisoft Montreal has blended kid-friendly action, platforming and simplified Prince of Persia (POP) acrobatics into a single turtle concoction. Coming sooner than you think, TMNT is hitting eight platforms, yes eight, March 20. You'll see it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, GameCube, and Wii.

Gain momentum in "Turtle Time."

In this new adventure, you'll take on the role of every turtle, Donatello, Rafael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo, with each character prepared to lay down his own special set of moves. And not so surprisingly, you'll face dangerous and dark criminals bent on causing massive destruction to the turtles' home turf, the Big Apple. This episode's evil enemy appears in the form of the mysterious Max Winters who, after being fired from his job, pursues a new career in creating an army of monsters to do his bidding. Even though the turtles have grown apart, there is no doubt you'll combine all of their skills to defeat Winters, who threatens the very heart of the turtle family.

Visually, TMNT takes the easy approach. The turtles look more like moving comic-book characters than "realistic" super heroes. We are talking about teenage mutant ninja turtles here; you know, anthropomorphic, walking, talking turtles, so they're already distinct. One's got the red bandana (and two sai), another's got an orange one (and nunchakus), Donatello has the purple bandana and the quarter staff, and Leonardo dons the blue bandana and wields two katana. Still, Ubisoft Montreal has kept the visuals simple and easy on the eye, using very little next-generation juice to spruce things up. Let us just say that one shouldn't expect the same CG-quality visuals used in the movie.

The animations look decent in this preview build, with some of the better ones showing the turtles shimmying along rooftop walls, running POP-style over cave walls, and hopping, Mario-style, across every object possible. While none of the working public has seen the movie, which hits theaters three days after the game (March 23), the title doesn't appear to spoil too much of the movie's narrative. It does, however, use the same themes and environments as the film. Ubisoft Montreal uses a series of set-cameras, or cinematic camera positions, to capture progression throughout the game. Much like Prince of Persia, Peter Jackson's King Kong, and Onimusha, the camera is set in the most theatrical position possible, sometimes sliding along rails, and sometimes, in boss fights, remaining completely still.

Very much a kids' game, TMNT starts out and remains easy. The first few levels teach players how to perform the basic and necessary moves. All four turtles can jump, double jump, cling to and shimmy on special ridges on walls and cliffs, and they can walk, run, and perform fighting moves. Using arcade games as its model for fighting and the Jade Engine to power it, Ubisoft Montreal's combat moves consist of a simple attack button, a helicopter kick, and a jump and slam move that momentarily pushes enemies away. The attack move links out to combos by simply hitting a single button repeatedly. I gotta tell you, you'll want to link up all the moves, but, sadly, the best strategy is just pressing attack over and over. It's the best way to cream a circle of NY punks with pipes in their hands, anyway.

Team up, dude, and totally slam that harsh boss!

The game follows a basic familiar formula: Platform through an environment, fight groups of brainless and simple AI, platform some more, then fight a boss. What makes the fights a little more entertaining is the way in which you battle. Along with the basic attacks, an evade move sets up counter attacks. There is also a momentum meter that appears on the upper-left hand side of the screen to indicate multiple uninterrupted attacks. By nailing about 10 to 15 uninterrupted attacks in a row, the turtles will jump into "Turtle Time" (i.e. Bullet Time), slowing enemies down while cleaning them up without restraint. They basically crouch down into their shells and "spin attack" enemies by slamming into their shins until they lose momentum. It's silly, but satisfying.

While the turtles share basic moves, each wields his own weapon and delivers a special move set. Donatello, who wields a quarter staff, uses a pole jump to cross large gaps and pummel enemies lined up in a row. Rafael moves like a quick lithe fighter, cutting enemies into bits using his double sai. Leonardo follows the medium-range fighter type by using his double katana to pummel enemies into the dirt. And Michelangelo flips his nunchakus in a blaze of light to surprise and KO his opponents. Early in the game, you'll fight individually in flashback sequences, but later on the turtles will combine forces to create tag-team combo attacks while still using a simple set of buttons pushes. Finally, each time you complete a level, you'll be graded on time spent, combat performance, and coins collected. The determining factor is always the amount of coins collected. If you achieve a B in timing and an A in combat, and all coins are collected, you'll get bumped up to an A grade and receive descriptive taglines such as "excellent" and "ninja." If you play the Xbox 360 version, the Achievements appear quite easily. I collected four by simply learning each of the four turtles' special moves.

Luckily, TMNT doesn't just consist of side-scrolling fights (though a strong contingent of IGN staffers wouldn't mind a clean port of the old coin-op classic on their newfangled systems). Instead, gamers will find themselves enjoying a mixture of platforming, POP-style, through jungles, sewers, caves, mountainsides, and the streets and rooftops of New York. The turtles will scamper across walls without falling, acrobatically swing from poles and girders, and maneuver over dangerous drops.

The game reminds you how young an audience Ubisoft is aiming for each every five to 10 seconds, too. You'll hear the turtles talking their own brand of turtle smack, issuing familiar catch-phrases such as "wuu-huhu-ho!", "totally awesome!", "cowabunga!", "awesome!", and "super-sensationalistic!" with relentless repetition. Yes, there is no doubt this game is for the youngins', but Ubisoft's game is true to form: the turtles were never the intellectual type. We realize this is also a preview build, but the few phrases were repeated over and over, giving us the feeling that either this preview build is just really early, or we're in for a painful audio experience.

In short, TMNT is a friendly, easy game that will bring back some fond memories, but won't, by any means, challenge the hardcore gaming psychonaut inside of you. Ubisoft's game should appear in nearly identical form on PS2, PC, Xbox 360, PSP, GameCube and Wii, while the Nintendo DS version should differ. Check out the new shots and then return tomorrow for the kick-ass, in-game trailer.

In TMNT, the Turtles must save New York City from a monstrous evil that lurks around every corner. Based on the CG animated movie produced by Imagi Animation Studios and based on Mirage Studios' Foot Clan-kicking Turtle heroes.